Houseboating,
“Sumitra,” a huge double decker house boat,
curiously seemed to be topped by a most extravagant Chinese hat. I had never seen anything like it, and was totally
flabbergasted by the elegant allure of the curvaceous lines
of its body, covered entirely with palm leaf and bamboo

solely tied together with coir rope.
It was already late in the afternoon so the sun didn’t
make its hand-woven bamboo palm cover shine as much
as it did when I saw it again the next day, upon boarding it.
It had glided ever so slowly towards the shore, after dark